June 13-16
Blythefield Country Club, Grand Rapids, Michigan
$2,000,000
Round 1, Round 3, Round 4

It's safe to say that Brooke Henderson really likes it at Blythefield Country Club. The eight-time LPGA Tour winner from Canada opened the tournament with rounds of 64, her ninth and 10th rounds in the 60s at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give. Her 36-hole 128? It's the best Thursday and Friday of her LPGA career and the best opening two rounds ever at the Meijer LPGA Classic. Her previous best? A 130, which she shot here at Blythewood en route to victory in 2017.

“Generally, I play really well here,” said Henderson. “You can be pretty aggressive around here and tee shots are key, so when my driver's working, I think I give myself a lot of birdie opportunities.”

If Henderson keeps up this pace, she is also setting herself up for a Canadian-recording-setting ninth win on Sunday. She notched her eighth career victory in April at the LOTTE Championship to tie Sandra Post, Mike Weir and George Knudson as the all-time winningest Canadian golfers.

Focus on speed working for Altomare

Brittany Altomare played 31 holes on Friday after play was suspended due to darkness on Thursday evening. The key to the 28-year-old American's game on Friday was her short game and keeping her practice routine simple.

“I've been struggling this year with my putting, which is normally my strong suit, and I guess last night into today it just kind of all clicked, which is nice to see,” said Altomare, who made 15 birdies on Friday between her remaining 13 holes in the first round and 18 of her second round. “My coach told me not to practice and not to stress over it. And then he said just focus on my speed this week, and literally that's all I did. I just hit a lot of lag putts just focusing on my speed and it really made a difference.”

Altomare is still searching for her first LPGA Tour victory. She has made 12 starts on the 2019 LPGA season with a best finish of T11 at the HSBC Women's World Championship. She's looking for some magic at Blythefield Country Club this weekend, which will be a sure boost of confidence heading into next week's KPMG Women's PGA Championship, the third major of the LPGA season.

“Going into [a major], it's good to make a lot of birdies and be confident,” said Altomare, who finished second in the 2017 Evian Championship. “My goal's always to win, but I just wanted to put myself in contention because I haven't been there in a while and I just love that feeling, so I'm excited to be there this weekend.”

Kupcho making tiring but exciting transition to life on Tour

It's week three as an LPGA professional for Jennifer Kupcho and the newbie has successfully made all three cuts. On Friday, Kupcho opened the Meijer LPGA Classic with back-to-back 67s and is currently six strokes behind first-round leader Brooke Henderson.

“[My game] is probably the best it's been since I turned pro,” said Kupcho, who recently graduated from Wake Forest University.” Coming off of Nationals, I've been exhausted and haven't been hitting it the best, and this tournament it's been very well, so it's really great. The last couple tournaments I've been struggling with that, so just to hit the ball well has been nice. I hit a lot of greens both rounds. I would just say pretty much everything is going good.” 

Kupcho is learning the valuable lesson of digging deep to pull off low scores, quickly learning how to adjust to the grind of playing on Tour and thankfully traveling with her dad, Mike Kupcho, as her caddie. 

“it's been a really tiring transition from college, but it's exciting to be out there playing for a living and have my dad with me,” said Kupcho. “He's seen me play more rounds than anyone else has, so he knows my game the best. I didn't really want to go through trying to search out a caddie, so I just decided he's been doing caddying my whole life, so I might as well just stick with it.”

Aces galore at Blythefield

No. 15 at Blythefield Country Club was the place to be in the first round, as four players drained aces at the 155-yard, par-3 hole. It marks the most aces in a single round since 1992, the earliest year to which the LPGA traces hole-by-hole stats.

Mariajo Uribe kicked off the party on Thursday night with her 7-iron, followed by another ace from Brooke Henderson with a 6-iron just before play was suspended. Haru Nomura and Giulia Molinaro added aces of their own, both with 7-irons, when the first round resumed on Friday morning. And to add to the fun, Lindy Duncan dropped one in at No. 7 in the second round, coming from 149 yards with a 7-iron.

For every hole-in-one during the 2019 LPGA Tour season, CME Group will donate $20,000 to St. Jude's Research Hospital. With the five aces so far at Blythefield, the season tally jumps to 16 aces and $320,000. The four first-round aces alone cover the cost of a one-week hospital stay for a St. Jude's patient.

“As soon as I made it, I was kind of thinking about (the donation) and how the money was going to go help some kids,” said Henderson. “That's just so important to me and I'm just really happy that I could help out in a small way.”

Quick Hits

Round 2 started at 10:45 a.m.

Play was suspended at 9:19 p.m. and is scheduled to restart at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning